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Controversy as Guo gets back into the limelight

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Guo Meimei, the woman at the heart of the scandal involving the Red Cross Society of China, has ignited more controversy with further media interviews in what people suspect is part of a strategy to achieve celebrity status.

Guo Meimei.[File photo]

Fashion magazine Marie Claire China published an "exclusive" interview, alongside studio photographs, in which the 20-year-old confessed: "I enjoy standing on the stage with all eyes on me."

She added: "After so many incidents, my mother and I considered going abroad."

Guo also claimed her wealth is the result of successful stock market speculation by her mother, Guo Dengfeng.

She protested her innocence of any love affair with Wang Jun, the 45-year-old former board member of a company that organizes Red Cross projects.

The magazine was immediately accused of "losing the baseline of morality" by releasing unverified and sensational contents.

Wu Ang, an independent columnist, said the magazine should be condemned for glorifying a "mistress in the Red Cross Society of China as a celebrity of the upper class."

Luo Changping, a deputy chief editor of Caijing Magazine, said: "An investigative report should not be based on a single-source interview and a magazine has the responsibility to verify the truth."

In a second interview published in the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper yesterday, Guo and her mother tried again to clarify their relationship with Wang, who gave Guo lavish gifts, including a 2 million yuan (US$313,000) Maserati, sparking allegations that Red Cross donations were being misused.

"Two million yuan is not a large amount for Wang Jun," said Guo Dengfeng. "I do not think Wang has any improper thought about Guo. But if he has, I would not know."

Guo Meimei said she received many expensive gifts, including a Cartier necklace, from male friends with whom she had never had an affair.

"I will not sell my body to achieve success," she told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Guo first came to public attention in June when she posted photographs of her collection of Hermes bags and the Maserati on her microblog.

Suspicion of a love affair between Guo and Wang intensified after Weng Tao, chief executive of Wang's company, described Guo as Wang's girlfriend. Both Wang's wife and Guo have denied this allegation on several occasions.